This past weekend Josemanuel and I raced at the Mid-Ohio sports car course. Both of us have and experience at this track and we both consider it one of our favorites. That said we came into the weekend with high expectations.
We did not get much quality practice time as the track was never the same; sometimes it was wet, sometimes it was drying, and rarely was it completely dry. We made some changes to the car to get it set up better for the dry; however, we were still fighting some handling issues.
In the race Josemanuel was doing great. He had the car in the top 7 after only a couple laps. Unfortunately, fell out of the top 10 when he spun and we got assessed a penalty during a pit stop. Our goal at almost every race we go to is to stay on the lead lap. If we managed to stay on the lead lap it would translate into a solid finish. However, the penalty was just enough to put us a lap down. I got in the car about an hour and twenty min into the race. We were still fighting a handling issue so it was hard to keep a fast pace. I had one of my most interesting stints of my career due to a fuel leak in a later pit stop. A rock got jammed in our fuel inlet which lead to gallons of fuel spilling out everywhere and when I turned on my wipers I even got some in the car. The crew did a good job quickly fixing the issue and I did not loose too much fuel in the process. However, it was just a matter of time before the race gas fumes that got on my suit and in my helmet caught up to me and as a result we got Josemanuel in the car for the last twenty min of the race. Josemanuel then did a great job and managed to pick up a spot or two in the closing laps.
All in all it was not a great weekend. I think I can speak for Josemanuel when I say we both look forward to Daytona and putting Mid-Ohio behind us.